Task List Docklet

[Smaky]

Warning: this is a very early beta, it also uses matonga's stacklibrary which is pre-beta. So it should be unstable, and may have many bugs & leaks.

This is just an experiment on using matonga's stacklib library. The docklet lists all tasks running and let you Minimize/Restore their window by clicking on their icon.

Download it from:

TaskList Docklet Preview

Updates:

- 04/16/2009: Fixed a bug that crashed explorer.exe under Windows XP. Some minor fixes too.

- 04/17/2009: Updated code to retrieve the window icon correctly (hopefully). A few more bug fixes and added application icon (used when no icon is retrieved).

- 04/20/2009: Added configuration tab for setting up stack font & color properties.

- 04/21/2009: modified icon-click behaviour (hopefully it works). When an application is minimized, clicking on it's icon restores it. If it is already shown but it is not the active (top most) window, it will be activated and taken to the top; finally, if it is the top window then it will be minimized. Kind like the normal behaviour of the task bar.

- 04/22/2009: Added Cascade/Tiling options to the right-click context menu.

Edited April 22, 2009 by Smaky

[Ghostwalker]

Well didn't fair so good for me, when I clicked on the icon it displayed "Retrieving ... and then crashed windows explorer. Using ObjectDock Plus Windows XP SP3 and I dont have time right now but if you need a list of running apps just say so and I will get it for you.

[Smaky]

Well... I haven't tested it under XP... I will check and get back at you.

Edit:

I tested it out under Windows XP and it crashed explorer.exe as Ghostwalker mentioned. Debugged it a bit and now it is working under XP. Please test it out again if the docklet crashed with the original download (Vista users should not face the error, but some small fixes were added).

BTW, I really need some icons for it... a docklet icon & a default app icon would be greatly appreciated.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Smaky

[ghostcrab]

me too. Using rk_launcher 0.41 beta build 282, XP SP3. After loading the docklet, there's a windows explorer crash. Same result when clicked on the icon.

[Smaky]

Check my previous post, I have updated the docklet a few minutes ago to add XP compatability (well at least it worked under my XP VM).

me too. Using rk_launcher 0.41 beta build 282, XP SP3. After loading the docklet, there's a windows explorer crash. Same result when clicked on the icon.

[Ghostwalker]

Working fine now, except it does not see firefox.

a docklet icon & a default app icon would be greatly appreciated.

Have any ideas for the icons?

Edited April 16, 2009 by Ghostwalker

[Smaky]

Well... for the stack icon, something with a question mark... this is the icon that will be used whenever a snapshot of the application (or the actual application icon is not available).

On the other hand, the docklet icon has been eluding me... it must be something that resembles the taskbar... or a list of applications I don't really know.

[Ghostwalker]

On the other hand, the docklet icon has been eluding me... it must be something that resembles the taskbar... or a list of applications I don't really know.

Will try to find the time to think about it, I have a lot going on right now. With your rss docklet are you planing on using the first image generated from each feed as Matonga suggested? If so you would only need the open icon and one for when an image is not found.

[Smaky]

No,I do not think so, since there are many feeds (at least the ones I usually consult) that do not include any image. But, let's see, if I get enough requests and time to do it, maybe I'll go for it.

Will try to find the time to think about it, I have a lot going on right now. With your rss docklet are you planing on using the first image generated from each feed as Matonga suggested? If so you would only need the open icon and one for when an image is not found.

[scissorhands7]

XP SP2 Service Pack 2

Latest stack docklet from matonga

Latest objectdock build

Turned off dock,

Drug both files and replaced the stacklib.dll and added the tasklist to the docklets

Went to add the tasklist docklet

Received this error upon adding:

"LoadLibrary Failed failed with error 14001: This appplication has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem"

[Smaky]

You need to install vcredist_x86.exe from microsoft. I have found that under some Windows XP systems the C++ redistributables are needed.

It could be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

XP SP2 Service Pack 2

Latest stack docklet from matonga

Latest objectdock build

Turned off dock,

Drug both files and replaced the stacklib.dll and added the tasklist to the docklets

Went to add the tasklist docklet

Received this error upon adding:

"LoadLibrary Failed failed with error 14001: This appplication has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem"

[holo13x]

its looking very good for now.

[Ghostwalker]

Still working on an idea for the dock icon but I see a bug. If I set Docklet Info: to "Show task count" it displays that I have 1 task. If I then change that to Show docklet label it says No Tasks Running.

Is this normal behavior? or should it say 1 Task Running? Also when there is only 1 task running it say 1 tasks which is plural should say 1 task and then 2 tasks...

Also with all your wonderful docklets I would like an option to display the count in a badge.( I will make up some badges and send you the psd ).

[scissorhands7]

Thanks Smacky it works perfectly now.

Improvements/Suggestions:

1. Allow an option to remove the "Tasks" part from the docklet. Personally, I'd rather just have the docklet say 2 instead of 2 tasks.

2. Have an option to have a transparent dock icon

3. Have an option to change the font size inside of the stack.

4. When I minimize a firefox window, it takes a new screenshot of the minimized little bar instead of the previous maximized screenshot. It doesn't take screenshots of the minimized little bar for explorer or any other of my applications. It would be great if it could keep the maximized screenshot of firefox.

5. The little icon of my computer that appears on the bottom right corner of explorer windows over the maximized isn't exactly the most attractive, it'd be nice to either change it or not have it appear for them.

I included a screenshot to illustrate the suggestions

Latest build of Object dock

XP Pro SP2

Thanks for your work, It's been a welcome addition to my dock.

Update:

Also I'm gonna add another request just for the heck of it. I'd love a standalone version of this along with a samurize meter. That would be excellent if I could convert this to a text meter above my dock. I don't know, that would just make this docklet for me. No harm in throwing ideas into the mix I suppose

Edited April 19, 2009 by scissorhands7

[Smaky]

@scissorhands7,

Thank you for your feed-back. Let's see:

1. No problem with that...

2. I did not understand, you can change the dock icon to whatever suits your tates using the "icons" tab in the settings dialog.

3. Ok, that's possible.

4. Yep, I've found some apps behave like this... I'll need to further investigate the reason... might take a while.

5. I did not get this one... what icon do you mean?

On the other hand I have never done any samurize version, so I would not know what to do.

[scissorhands7]

Never mind #2 I was just being lazy

Here's number five in the attachment.

I'll contact someone from the samurize versions about coming here and getting together with you on making a meter.

Edited April 19, 2009 by scissorhands7

[Smaky]

@scissorhands7,

I added the options to configure the stack font and color properties. On the issue with the icon, in my system I have installed IconPackager which has helped me replace the default icons used by my system. When doing so, I see no low res icon there, so it must be the icon retrieved from the system.

It has been really hard to retrieve hi-res icons from a running job, if I ever found a way to do it I'll update the docklet, in the mean time I could add an option for preventing the icon from being added to the snapshot... will that do it?

[scissorhands7]

Yeah that would be great Smacky I'm still working on finding someone to turn it into a textual meter on samurize.

One more thing that you could improve is that the task count doesn't update realtime when a task is created. It seems to only update when I click on it.

Thanks again for your great work

[Ghostwalker]

It seems to only update when I click on it.

I noticed this also.

[Smaky]

Indeed, the task count is not updated continuously... there is a trade-off here...

- I could have a timer to fire an update every X seconds, updating the application snapshots & other stuff, but that would take some CPU & memory.

- I could only update the task count, updating all the other stuff only when clicking (less CPU overhead); and finally,

- Leave it as it is now, updating only when clicking on the docklet (no overhead while left alone, an small delay when the docklet is clicked).

- Add a config option to let you decide among the three previous options (will require more code, thus the docklet will get a bigger memory footprint)

Personally I have opted to not show the count at all... since I do not really care about how many "running tasks" are there... specially since that count is by far not quite the real number of actual processes running on the system.

I was waiting to hear from you before deciding on this... What do you think that will be the best?

I'll keep an eye for your feedback a few days and the come up with a decission.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Smaky

[Ghostwalker]

Personally I have opted to not show the count at all... since I do not really care about how many "running tasks" are there... specially since that count is by far not quite the real number of actual processes running on the system.

Agreed

[scissorhands7]

Hmmm...

Well after testing it a lot more, I've found another bug.

When I open a task such as explorer. Then click the task docklet, it updates upon click and I see the appropriate windows displayed as well as the correct number of tasks.

However, when I close the task docklet and close my explorer window that I had opened, and then click the task docklet, I still see my explorer window, and see 3 tasks, when in reality there are only 2 and my explorer window that I know is closed shows up in the tasks docklet. When I click my explorer window, the tasks docklet closes as if I clicked off of the display. Upon clicking the task docklet a second time after this, the appropriate windows and tasks numbers are displayed.

Steps to Reproduce.

1. Open and close task docklet doing nothing

2. Open a task

3. Open and close task docklet (appropriate windows and number)

4. Close the task you recently opened in Step #2

5. Open task docklet (BUG: inappropriate window and number, the task docklet acts as if the task opened in #2 was never closed)

6. Upon clicking the task in #2 that is not supposed to be there the task docklet closes

7. Upon reopening the docklet the appropriate number of windows and task number is shown.

So would there be any way to update the task docklet every time a task is created? I'm not a good coder but i think this would be the best option. If it cannot be done I think giving the user the option to do the three options you described as well as selecting their own time to update the docklet would be good. Most computers have plenty of memory nowadays. I don't know that's my input. Thanks again Smacky

[Smaky]

Fixed.

Hmmm...

Well after testing it a lot more, I've found another bug.

When I open a task such as explorer. Then click the task docklet, it updates upon click and I see the appropriate windows displayed as well as the correct number of tasks.

However, when I close the task docklet and close my explorer window that I had opened, and then click the task docklet, I still see my explorer window, and see 3 tasks, when in reality there are only 2 and my explorer window that I know is closed shows up in the tasks docklet. When I click my explorer window, the tasks docklet closes as if I clicked off of the display. Upon clicking the task docklet a second time after this, the appropriate windows

[scissorhands7]

That's completely solved.

It appears to have the same behavior as matonga's winexpose when interacting with the styler toolbar of explorer, but that's not worth fixing and I think has more fault with the styler toolbar than the tasks docklet.

Besides that updating thing with the task number on the docklet, the firefox minimizing problem, I'd say its good to go on Objectdock XP SP2. Great work!

Update #1:

Another bug(kinda) I noticed that if you can tweak would be good.

When having multiple windows open, lets say explorer, paint and firefox. And all three windows are open and not minimized. And firefox is maximized. And the user wants to switch from Firefox to paint lets say. So the user clicks on the docklet and selects paint, but nothing happens because the task docklet instead of bringing the window to the front of all the windows, just minimizes the window.

So the user has to click twice on his/her desired window to get it to open.

Steps to Replicate:

3 unminimized windows(paint, explorer, firefox), firefox is maximized.

1. User clicks the task docklet to open paint

2. User selects Paint

3. Paint minimizes (user just wants it to come to the front of the screen)

4. Confused user clicks task docklet again to open paint

5. User selects paint

6. Paint comes to the front of the window

7. User satisfied.

Update #2

None of the settings of the docklet save after I restart.

Edited April 20, 2009 by scissorhands7

[Smaky]

So if I understand correctly, as the real taskbar, if the window is not iconized, but it is not the active window, clicking on it should make it the active one, if it is already the active window, it should minimize it, and finally if it's already minimized it should restore it and made it the active window.

If that so, well... let me think how to accomplish that... but definetively that would make the docklet more usable.

On the other hand, I could not reproduce the bug where the docklet configuration is not being saved... I tested out with WinXP & Vista and both saved the docklet configuration without problems here.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Smaky